Ears On With the Microsoft Surface Earbuds

At this year's big fall Surface hardware event, Microsoft not only unveiled new tablets and laptops, but also some premium earbuds with Office integration.

Michael Muchmore

Oct. 3, 2019, 6:45 a.m.

Microsoft's 2018 fall Surface event saw the unveiling of the Surface Headphones, and this year the company expanded its audio offerings with the Surface Earbuds. We were on hand to give them a listen.

These wireless earbuds will go on sale later this month and for a not-inconsiderable $249—just as with the headphones, the earbuds are priced at a premium level. But while the Surface Headphones impressed with their adjustable noise cancelling, but the earbuds don't include active noise cancelling.

What sets them apart are their unique, large circular shape, available in white or gray; touch surfaces for controlling volume and tracking back and forward; and integration with Microsoft PowerPoint for instant speech-to-text during presentations. The buds also boast 8 hours of battery life per charge, and the charging case can fully recharge them three times without having to be plugged in.

The circular earbuds measure nearly an inch in diameter (0.98 inches or 25mm) and are 3/4 of an inch deep. I suspect that like Apple and its AirPods, Microsoft likes the idea that the Surface Earbuds are unmistakable. Some may consider them too large, but that gives them more surface area for gesture control. They're pretty distinctive, even among today's large choice of true wireless earbuds. As with the best of the category, they use Bluetooth 5.0 with SBC and aptX codecs.

In-Ear Fit

The same team that designed the Xbox Adaptive Controller is behind the design of the Earbuds, with lots of ergonomic science to back it up. The buds are designed for all-day wearing and to not create pressure pain over that period. As a result, they felt somewhat loose in my ears; it makes sense that if you want them to be comfortable over many hours, you don’t want them pressing tightly. That said, they don’t offer much passive noise cancelling; Microsoft claims that’s on purpose, since they’re intended for workplace use, and you want to be able to hear colleagues to some degree.

The kit comes with three unusually shaped, removable ear tips, in small, medium, and large sizes. In the photo above, the left side shows the earbud without any tip fastened. As one who has trouble fitting most earbuds, I had difficulty getting these to snugly mount in my left ear.

Sound Quality

Since the earbuds lack active noise cancelling, it was hard to judge sound quality in the noisy press demo area at the Surface event. Rock sounded fine, with decent bass. The Deutsche Grammophon recording of the Vienna Philharmonic's recording of Beethoven's well-known Symphony No. 5 in C under the baton of Carlos Klieber sounded crisp and well defined.

The 13.6mm drivers are generous compared with the already-excellent Anker SoundCore Liberty Air earbuds, which sound quite good to me with their 6mm drivers. Of course the Surface Earbuds lack the Sony WF-1000XM3 true-wireless earbuds' proprietary sound-clarifying DSEE HX technology or noise cancelling, both of which combine for a remarkably clear, detailed sound. Those similarly priced units boast the same 24 hours of charging without plugging in.

Control Gestures

The fairly large surface makes control easier than very small earbuds. You can turn volume up or down by sliding a finger up or down on either earbud’s outer surface. Swiping side-to-side takes you to the next or previous track. A double tap pauses and plays music or answers a call when your phone is ringing. A long-press opens your phone (or PC’s, if you’ve connected to that) virtual assistant, whether that’s Cortana, Google Assistant, or Siri. For those (like me) who use Spotify, a triple tap starts playing your music where you left off.

Office Integration

At today's event, Microsoft's Surface lead, Panos Panay, showed how you can use the Earbuds to generate live speech-to-text captions in a PowerPoint presentation, and that worked well in my trials of the Earbuds. That feature can even use Azure cloud services to translate as you speak into a choice of 60 different languages. You can also swipe on the earbuds to advance your PowerPoint slides.

Other Office integrations include listening and replying to your Outlook email, and dictation in Word.

Charging Case

The charging case is smaller than that of the wonderful Sony WF-1000XM3 true-wireless earbuds, yet both give you the same 24 hours of charge. The Surface case connects with USB-C, which is a bit more universal than Apple AirPods' Lightning connector. Note, finally, that you can leave the tips on as you charge—it would be a drag to have to reinsert them each time you put them on!

Color Choices

In addition to the Apple-ish white earbuds, gray is an option for those whose want to remain lower-key.

About the Author

Michael Muchmore is PC Magazine’s lead analyst for software and Web applications. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed up PC Magazine’s coverage of Web development, enterprise software, and display technologies. Michael cowrote one of the first overviews of Web Services (pretty much the progenitor of Web 2.0) for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Magazine’s Solutions section, which in those days covered programming techniques as well as tips on using popular office software. Most recently he covered Web 2.0 and other software for ExtremeTech.com.

Michael got his start in computing as a lad, when he wrote a BASIC program for a Radio Shack … See Full Bio